E3 2011: 49ers Stomp Seahawks ... In Madden NFL 12

EA Sports' Madden NFL 12 is set to be one of the best Madden games in years. That's what the developers say about all of the games, but this is the first time I'm actually jumping on board. There's a lot of reasons for that, and almost all of them come from things that we can actually see and derive ourselves as opposed to taking their somewhat dodgy word for. Listening to the Madden developers is the last thing you want to do when it comes to an upcoming Madden game. There's always a new feature that they talk about that falls short of expectations, while everything else is ignored.

This time out, they're paying attention to the presentation, while making subtle changes to the gameplay to make it work better. They're adding in features for franchise mode, and to me, that's hugely important. They're also changes they can't get away with lying about at this point, since they're clearly defined. What it all comes down to, then, is the gameplay, and personally, I think the gameplay looks great. Make the jump for more.

The videos thus far has looked crisp and fast, with real routes from receivers and defensive backs. The defensive line is no longer useless and I'm pretty big on the running. The biggest problem is the fact that a couple videos have come out with safeties being stupid and standing around doing nothing. This is bound to happen, they might someday make it perfect, but for now, it looks like a huge step up at least.

Anyway, the good folks over at PastaPadre.com posted some videos of the game in action. Pasta himself is a Seahawks fan, so it's no surprise that a couple of the videos posted involve the 'Hawks. However, they also contain, you guessed it, the 49ers! In fact, the Seahawks versus the 49ers is the game posted. I figured, as it's Pasta, it would feature the 49ers winning, but that didn't turn out to be the case, so pleasant surprise there. It was two human players, as I understand it, and the guy playing San Francisco was better, so kudos on that front.

That being said, I like a lot of what I see. Presentation is top notch and the gameplay looks fast and fluid. There is one bit where the safety just stands there doing nothing, but for the most part the animations look pretty good. I just see an awful lot to like at this point. The funniest part of the video is the fact that Isaac Sopoaga is the player of the game. ... Isn't that amazing? It's so amazing. Anyway, I'm going to embed one of the videos, but there are five of them, so click the link here. Thoughts?